Goenka Group keen to expand café chain Au Bon Pain

The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group will invest ₹20-30 crore for expansion of its café chain Au Bon Pain over the next 12 to 18 months.

Twenty-one new outlets are expected to be added this fiscal to take the total count to 50 by March. According to Avarna Jain, Founder and In-charge, Au Bon Pain, these new outlets will be added across Kolkata – around 10; Delhi – seven or eight; and, the remaining in Bangalore.

“Our immediate focus is to expand in these three cities and reach profitability first. This will be followed by expansion in other cities. We hope to reach profitability in 12 to 18 months,” Jain said.

Avarna Jain is the daughter of Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

Currently, Au Bon Pain has 29 outlets of which 26 are in Bangalore, two in Kolkata and one in Delhi NCR.

Of these, a majority of the stores have achieved break-even. “At the store level, we are breaking even,” she added. Au Bon Pain is a US-based café bakery chain, and the Goenka Group has 80 per cent stake in Au Bon Pain Café India, which runs the eponymous café chain.

The Goenkas own the chain through Spencer’s Retail — a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group’s flagship CESC Ltd.

Larger formats According to Avarna Jain, Au Bon Pain is keen to explore larger format stores with an average size of around 1,500 sq ft. Earlier, cafés had an average size of around 700 sq ft.

“Earlier, eating out was occasion-specific. But now, with gruelling schedules, it has become more popular. This has led to the need for larger areas,” she added.

New cafés would mostly be in high streets along with a mix of mall and trade formats. Trade formats mostly include outlets in airport lounges, college campuses and so on.